*****= An all-time favorite
**** = Outstanding
*** = Above
average
** = Enjoyable
*
= Good, with reservations
**Davey's Blue-Eyed Frog
by Patricia Harrison Easton
Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka
Reviewed May 15, 2003.
Clarion Books, New York, 2003. 92 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (JF EAS).
What happens when a third grade boy finds a frog who claims to be a
princess and wants him to kiss her? Well, he certainly doesn’t do
it in a hurry. He doesn’t kiss girls and he doesn’t kiss frogs.
Instead, he decides to show all his friends his new talking frog.
When the frog tries to foil his plans and keep quiet, he knows she doesn’t
have a chance. Girls never stop talking for long!
Here’s a fun story for kids ready for a chapter book. Like so
many of my favorites, it’s a clever twist on a familiar fairy tale.
It’s simple and short and geared for younger readers. I enjoy a meatier
tale myself, but this one did make a fun half-hour’s reading. It’s
perfect for its intended audience, kids ready for chapter books but not quite
ready to plow through stories of Redwall.
Again, I have to stress that my star system is a rating
of how much I enjoyed the book, not an unbiased estimate of how well it
reaches its intended audience. I don’t often review books in this particular
niche, since it’s hard to make easy-reading chapter books interesting to
children and adults. I enjoyed this one, since it fell into my favorite
category of twisted fairy tales. For kids at this reading level, between
picture books and full-fledged novels, this book will be a real treat.
The next time a parent comes into the library saying that their child’s second-grade
teacher is requiring him to bring in a chapter book, Davey’s Blue-Eyed
Frog will be one of the first ones I suggest.
Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund
